Hopes that the fragile truce holding the Anglican Communion together would not be broken by the Anglican Church of Canada’s June 3 vote affirming the “sanctity” of homosexual relationships [TLC, June 30] appear to have collapsed as Anglican leaders from the Global South have called for the expulsion of the Canadian Church from the Anglican Communion.

Gathered in Nairobi for a three-day meeting of the All-Africa Council of Churches, the leaders of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), held an extraordinary caucus in response to the Canadian vote. In a statement released on June 12, they declared their “total and absolute disgust and deepest regret at the unfortunate decision,” saying “this latest move of the Church of Canada can neither be justified nor supported.”

Overseas reactions to the Canadian vote to sacramentalize same-sex relationships have been equally swift and sharp. Archbishop Drexel Gomez, of the West Indies, a member of the Eames Commission, released a statement on June 3 saying the Canadian vote had wrecked the work of the commission.

Archbishop Gomez wrote, “It is completely unacceptable to Bible-believing orthodox Christians that same-sex unions are described as “holy.” Such language is reserved for marriage alone.”

“The attempt to give ‘committed adult same-sex relationships’ the same theological stature as marriage exacerbates the crisis in the communion and will reap devastating consequences,” he said.

In an interview with the Church of England Newspaper and the Telegraph of London, Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone, speaking on behalf of the coalition of 22 primates from the Global South, said Canada, as well as the Episcopal Church, should be expelled from the Anglican Communion.

“The use of the word ‘sanctify’ means that the whole issue has already been decided and that is devastating,” he said. “It’s saying that God has agreed to bless same-sex unions as the word carries the implication that this isn’t just right, but that this is God’s will and he has set it apart for the human race.”

The Anglican Church of Canada is “rewriting the Christian faith. There’s nothing in the Bible about the sanctity of same-sex relationships. This merely confirms the sad reality of the fragmentation of the Anglican family.”